Get Well
by Cold Silence
Summary: Someone has placed a cruel curse on the Keyblade Master. Now it is up to Sora's friends to find a cure. Roxas x Sora, Leon x Sora, Axel x Roxas. Shounen Ai. Fluff.


**Title:** Get Well

**Author**: Cold Silence

**E-Mail:** .com

**Pairings:** Roxas + Sora, Leon + Sora, Axel + Roxas.

**Warnings:** Shounen Ai.

**Disclaimer:** Kingdom Hearts and its characters belong to Tetsuya Nomura and Square-Enix.

**Comments:** This fic was written for a contest. Sadly, I didn't win it. Writing this fic was still fun though because of the interesting pairings. After playing 368/2 Days, I made some major changes to this story to make it more canon, so those who have read the earlier version will notice that a few things are different.

**Get Well**

"On the house."

Sora gave the redheaded shopkeeper in front of him an incredulous look. When he came to Scrooge McDuck's stand for some sea salt ice cream, he was surprised to find a new employee taking the rich duck's place. Now he was even further surprised over the fact that he was being offered his favorite treat for free. Obviously this person didn't know much about his boss; Scrooge wasn't the kind of guy that liked giving freebies.

"Are you sure you want to do that? I wouldn't want you to get in trouble with Scrooge," said Sora, even though his munny bags were feeling kind of light nowadays.

"Maybe I like trouble," answered the shopkeeper with a chesire cat smile. "Besides, it's not every day that I get the one and only Keyblade Master as my customer. You should live a little kid; don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Sora thought on it a few moments and decided that it was true: he had been working pretty hard lately, and therefore he deserved free ice cream. He turned a bright smile in the shopkeeper's direction as he said, "Alright, I'll take it! But don't say I didn't warn you if you get fired."

"My being fired is the least of your worries," murmured the shopkeeper as he walked inside the frigid ice cream stand to fetch Sora's order. When he returned, his teeth were chattering and his body was shivering beneath the fleece jacket that he wore. He extended the popsicle to Sora. "Don't lose a tooth on it."

"Thanks." Sora received the treat and gave it an enthusiastic lick. The first taste was always best, but today there was something different about it. "It tastes tangier today," he commented. Sora glanced up at the shopkeeper and found that he was the subject of an intense green gaze. It made him uncomfortable to be stared at in that manner, so he decided that now was a good time to rejoin his friends. "I really appreciate this; my munny was kind of low, so.. I'll see ya later."

As Sora began to walk away, the shopkeeper answered in a demure tone of voice, "The things I do for you."

_ The things I do for you_, echoed a distant memory. Recognition made Sora stop in his tracks. Something in his heart was sent humming with those words. "Do I know you?" he asked as he turned to face the shopkeeper, but to his surprise, there was no one in front of the stand. Sora scanned the rest of the marketplace, hoping to catch a glimpse of the tall boy with vividly red hair, but there was no sign of him.

Odd. Why did he leave? And why was he suddenly so familiar to Sora? He sucked on his popsicle as he contemplated this strange mystery. Whatever that was all about, he couldn't malinger on the details for too long; Donald and Goofy were waiting for him. So with a soft "hm" of wonderment, he left to rejoin his friends.

From the shadows, the shopkeeper watched Sora walk off, the tear shaped tattoos on his cheeks at odds with the wide grin on his face.

* * *

"What took you so long?" Donald demanded when Sora finally regrouped with his companions.

"I wuz getting ish creashm," said Sora around his mouthful of popsicle. Apparently, the ice cream was so good that he didn't want to take it out of his mouth to speak.

Donald gestured with his scepter at the cool treat, as if he intended to zap it out of Sora's hands with a Thundaga spell. "You're gonna get fat if you keep eating that stuff."

"Ah might loosh a toosth too," added Sora with a grin.

"Ah hyuk, maybe it won't be so bad if Sora got fat. Big Bodies are fat n' they still give us a hard time," commented Goofy.

Unfortunately, Donald didn't take well to being undermined by Goofy's logic, so he sent a lightening zap to the seat of the knight's pants to make him be quiet. Poor Goofy was launched into the air from the butt-fire.

Sora tilted his head back to watch his comrade soar into the sky. It never ceased to amaze him that Goofy was able to do that. Since this was an everyday occurrence with their trio, he saw fit to continue the conversation distractedly, "It's not like I get to eat ice cream every day." He mentally calculated the trajectory of Goofy's flight, then started walking in the direction of the Boroughs where the knight was sure to land.

Donald followed him, ranting and raving the whole time about the importance of brushing teeth and fat heroes. A year ago, Sora would have been annoyed by the squawking voice constantly making noise in the background, but nowadays he didn't mind so much. It was almost reassuring in a way.

_ Was it a year ago that I met him? _

His thoughts circled back to the shopkeeper. For some reason, the clothes that the redhead had been wearing bothered him. The tan colored, fleece jacket and relaxed denim jeans didn't seem right. The colors were too bright.

When heartless began to bleed up from the grounds of the residential district, Sora let go of his mental meandering. Like clockwork, Goofy fell from the sky like a rejected angel and landed directly beside him. The boy silently congratulated himself at the fact that he was getting really good at predicting the places where Goofy would fall.

In any case, it was time to get to work. Sora's lips twisted around the remnants of his popsicle in a grim smile of determination, and then he launched himself at the creatures of darkness. The keyblade manifested in his palms, and he slanted it to the side as he planted one foot on the ground in preparation for a leap.

But something was wrong. His legs suddenly turned to jelly and a wave of nausea shot up from his stomach. The ground rushed up to his face in a fast-moving blur; the last thing he heard before he blacked out was the sound of exploding claymores and his friends yelling out his name in alarm.

* * *

_ Hot_. It was so incredibly hot. The heat was cooking Sora's skin and his sweat was doing nothing to cool it off. He opened his eyes a sliver and found that he couldn't see anything beyond his own damp lashes. Sora barely registered that he was naked beneath a thin white sheet and that he was in someone's home. All that mattered was the cool touch of a wet towel on his forehead. "Mom," he uttered brokenly to the person assuaging his fever.

Aerith smiled down at Sora in amusement as she continued to press the rag to his forehead. "That's the second time you've called me that," she said gently.

"Aerith?" murmured Sora. His eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room, and he found himself looking up at Aerith's sweet face. He felt relieved to be with someone that he could trust. "Where am I?"

"You are in my home. You were brought here after you collapsed." Aerith gave Sora a reassuring smile, one that turned worried when the Keyblade Master attempted to sit up. She placed her hands on Sora's shoulders and gently guided him back to the mattress. "Please, don't sit up Sora. You are very sick."

"Ugh." Sora shut his eyes tightly as waves of nausea kicked up with every movement. He lowered himself back to the mattress with a suffering expression. "What's wrong with me?"

"We are not sure. We have tried curing you many times, but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Merlin was here a few moments ago to examine you. Our friends are talking to him now," answered Aerith. She lightly brushed calming strokes to Sora's cheek.

"This is crazy, I can't be sick." Sora's voice was full of pleading as he looked at Aerith with wet and luminous blue eyes. "I gotta find Riku, I gotta defeat the Organization, I gotta –"

"You 'gotta' rest. You can't do much in your current state," said Aerith. She silently understood the reasons for Sora's urgency, but unfortunately a sick Keyblade Master wasn't going to survive long in battle. Aerith picked damp hair from Sora's face and continued in a soft voice, "I am going to see what Merlin has to say. Get some sleep, Sora."

Sora's pout at the mere mention of sleep made Aerith smile. She gave the boy a reassuring look, and then she left the guestroom and closed the door behind her. Her living room was only a few feet away, and that was where Merlin was holding a meeting with Sora's comrades and friends.

Already gathered were Cid, Leon, Yuffie, Donald, Goofy, and Merlin. The wizard was standing in the center of the room and was in the middle of explaining the nature of what happened to Sora. "So you see, the effects of Cure spells and potions will not work on his body due to the resistance of the curse," he said to the others.

"How 'n the hell did the kid get cursed?" groused Cid. He shot an accusatory stare at Donald. "Ain't you a damn sorcerer? Why didn't you do your job and stop this from happenin'?"

Donald responded by losing his temper. He hopped on one foot and revved one arm in preparation to punch Cid for his comment. Before he could get too far, however, Yuffie grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Donald was too furious to notice that he was being held back, and he continued to squawk and fume at Cid while Yuffie held him in place.

"Yanno, Cid's got a point," Yuffie said thoughtfully despite having to hang onto Donald. "Curses don't come easy do they?"

"Most certainly not! Curses are a blight on the very blood of the victim," said Merlin imperiously. "He would have had to bleed on the cursed object, or have swallowed an enchanted potion."

"Daw, izzit possible that that there curse could'a come from ice cream?" asked Goofy. He found himself at the center of many stares upon asking his rhetorical question. Even Donald stopped trying to beat up Cid. "He was eatin' one just before he fainted," he continued despite the gawking.

"Ice cream?" Merlin said incredulously. He shifted his mustache in thought. "Well, I suppose it could be done. A frozen potion maybe. We are in more modern times."

"Where did he get the ice cream from?" asked Leon. His words sounded more like a demand than the question that it was meant to be.

Goofy tapped his head in thought before answering, "I suppose he got it from Scrooge's place. That's where you get dem popsicles, right?"

There were times like these that Goofy revealed that he was a lot more intelligent than he looked. Leon made a mental note to check out Scrooge's place for clues as to the whereabouts of the person responsible for giving Sora cursed popsicles.

"So how are we supposed to break this curse?" asked Yuffie. Since Donald looked like he got over his momentary bout of anger, she finally let go of his collar and turned her attention back to Merlin.

"How are you supposed to break the curse – what a simple question! You break the curse the way all curses are broken of course," said Merlin. He was incredulous over the fact that no one knew how to solve such a simple riddle. The wizard adjusted his glasses before continuing his impromptu lecture. "Let's see, we have here a curse of sickness, so the only thing that will cure him is a symbol of well-wishing."

"A what? Where are we supposed to get that?" Yuffie asked. She tilted her head with her question.

"My dear, the quest for such a symbol is half the battle. If I were to tell you the anti-curse, it would reduce its effectiveness," said Merlin. He tapped his cane on the ground to signify that he was adamant about keeping the cure to himself.

"That's bullshit," interjected Cid. "What the hell are we supposed to do then?"

"Start searching," Leon answered in a terse voice.

Cid flooded the rest of the conversation with curses, but abruptly stopped when he noticed that Sora was standing at the entrance of the guestroom.

The poor boy stared at the people gathered, barely able to control the way that he was shaking beneath the blanket tightly clutched around his bare body. "I'm cursed?" Sora asked thickly.

Before anyone could answer the question, Sora fell into another faint.

* * *

Witnesses said that they saw a redheaded male with tear-shaped tattoos on his face give Sora the ice cream. Scrooge testified that he had never hired such a person to maintain his stand, and further confirmed that no popsicles were missing from his inventory. Fliers were posted all over Radiant Garden to announce a reward for anybody who knew any information pertaining to the whereabouts of the faux shopkeeper. The members of the Restoration Committee received many tips, but none of the leads panned out. Either there were a ton of tattooed redheads out there, or the mystery man was very good at hiding himself.

The quest for the cure had its own dead ends. They tried every symbol of well-wishing that they could find, including teddy bears, balloons, get-well cards, uplifting books – anything and everything that they could possibly get their hands on. Sora's room was filled to the brim with gifts, but none of them were able to cure him.

Sora was bedridden for two days with weakness and nausea. However, the sickness was nothing compared to the worries that plagued him. Every day lost was another day that Riku slipped further from his fingertips; every day lost was another day that he wasn't home with Kairi. He often tried to get up and force himself to continue his mission, but if Aerith didn't catch him wandering, then the fainting spells would. Sora hated his own helplessness.

"Makes ya mad doesn't it?" asked a familiar voice one lonely night.

Sora slowly blinked his eyes open. Next to his bed, hovering just off to the side of his peripheral vision, was the redheaded shopkeeper. He was dressed in the exact same way that the boy remembered, and even now, the clothes still looked wrong. A sense of danger made Sora's jaw clench tightly.

"You just stand around while the people most important to you walk out of your life, thinking _damn_, I wish I could do something. But in the end," Axel said, walking closer to the bed and making himself comfortable on the edge of the mattress, "you're just a loser that can't do much at all." A wide grin stretched his lips when he finished.

"You did this to me," uttered Sora, his anger more apparent in his eyes than in his weakly spoken words.

"When you say it like that, it sounds so naughty," crooned Axel. Then again, he didn't mind naughty. The Nobody reached for Sora's neck, and for one, terrible moment, it seemed like he was going to wrap his spindly fingers around the delicate flesh and choke the boy to death. Instead, he caught a bead of sweat that had pooled in the hollow of Sora's throat and brought it to his lips for a taste.

Sora's face contorted in disgust and he struggled to lift his heavy limbs to prevent more violations of his body. Waves of nausea made him gasp softly with the effort. "What do you want from me?" he asked in a tortured whimper.

In answer, Axel brought his face so close to Sora's that their noses almost touched. "I want the part of you that you took from me," he said huskily. "Have you remembered it yet? My name?"

Sora turned his head to the side to avoid contact with the intruder. "I don't know you!" he said through clenched teeth.

The intense expression on Axel's face vanished completely, leaving his façade flat and empty. Wordlessly, he leaned away from Sora and reached to pluck a teddy bear from the nightstand. He stared down at the plush animal, which had doubtlessly been sent to the Keyblade Master to wish for his health. In the next instant, its brown fur burst into flames.

"Don't play games with me, Roxas," said Axel dangerously. His brief apathy was replaced with burning anger; his green eyes were as full of heat as the fire. "I know you can hear me. I know you can come out. Don't make me take drastic measures."

A sudden flash of light warned Axel to jump away from the bed. The Kingdom Key swiped the space where his head had been a mere moment before. Sora had summoned the keyblade beneath his blankets and used the last ounce of his energy to attempt to hit the Nobody with it, but he had missed. The maneuver costed him the last of his energy, and now he was breathing heavily with the effort of just holding his weapon.

"So you're going to do this the hard way huh? Typical," said Axel. The floorboards of the guestroom began to crackle and burn. Fire quickly spread through the bedroom, consuming all the sweet gifts that had been given to the Keyblade Master. Axel tossed the flaming teddy bear to the side, and it burned to ashes in midair.

"Guess I'll have to move to plan B. Kidnap you –" A pair of chakrams appeared in Axel's hands. "– then beat the nobody out of you! You like that, Roxas?"

"Roxas," uttered Sora, "isn't my name!"

Although the keyblade was pointed threateningly at Axel, the Nobody strode through the flames in the room and fearlessly knocked it out of Sora's hands with his chakrams. A spike of fear went through Sora's body as he flexed his empty fingers and called the weapon back to him.

"It doesn't matter if you have a keyblade or not. You're too weak to use it," said Axel. As if to prove his words, Sora dropped the Kingdom Key almost as soon as it reappeared in his palm. He was too weak to keep a good grip on its pommel. Axel grinned down at the helpless boy. "I hope you like it hot."

_ No!_ The heat was too much. Darkness was creeping into the edges of Sora's vision, and he fought valiantly to keep himself awake. However, it was to no avail; his muscles gradually turned to water and his mind completely shut down. He limply slid to the mattress in a faint.

Axel grinned in triumph. He wished that he had thought of poisoning Roxas a long time ago. Just as he moved in to collect his prize, the door to the guestroom exploded off its hinges. The Nobody wheeled around to face the interloper that dared to interrupt his reunion with his old comrade.

* * *

It had been a close call. Leon came to check on Sora with Goofy and Donald, and discovered Aerith knocked out on the living room floor and the house filled with smoke. He used his gunblade to blast the guestroom door open and found none other than Radiant Garden's most-wanted man hovering over Sora. They fought to save the Keyblade Master from the Nobody's clutches and eventually managed to chase the redhead away.

Unfortunately, they were unable to save the house; it burned to the ground that night. Aerith was now temporarily staying with Yuffie and Leon personally made sure that Sora stayed in his own house for safety. Merlin charmed Leon's home so that it was fireproof and dimensionally sound, thereby rendering it incapable of catching on fire or granting entry to beings with the ability to teleport.

Taking care of Sora became an around-the-clock job. Aerith would see to his needs during the day, and Leon took over the duties when it was nightfall. Donald and Goofy guarded the house all day long, although when it was late they tended to fall asleep on the job. Leon occasionally kicked them awake, but that only managed to keep them up for an extra half-hour.

To see the Keyblade Master so sick bothered Leon. It wasn't in Sora's character to be weak in any shape or form. Even though moving was likely to make him vomit, the boy still tried to walk to get his own food, use the bathroom, or go outside. He often became pouty when he was forced to go back to bed; he hated lying around all day and being a leech on everyone's time.

That was why it was so surprising when he came to Leon's side one night for help. Sora stumbled into the living room, pale and nauseated, and tried to rouse the sleeping man from the couch. The words "help, help" were muttered over and over again until Leon finally opened his gray eyes.

Immediately sensing that something was very wrong, Leon jolted upright and held Sora's shaking shoulders. "What's wrong?" he demanded softly.

"There's a boy in my room," said Sora.

Considering that this wasn't the first time that a stranger approached Sora in the middle of the night, Leon immediately stood up from the sofa. He told Sora to stay put while he grabbed his gunblade from its ready position beside the fireplace and stalked to the bedroom. Upon arriving, he cautiously opened the door and used his weapon to flick the light switch on.

At first glance, Leon didn't see anything out of the ordinary. To double-check, he looked beneath the bed, rifled through the closets and checked behind the curtains. Nothing was amiss. With a scowl, he returned to the living room where Sora was sitting on the couch in a slumped position. "There's nobody there," he informed the young boy.

"He's here," Sora whispered. He was peering in the direction of the shadowed fireplace. "He looks at me from the darkness."

Leon looked at the fireplace, but saw nothing. To give Sora the benefit of the doubt, he got on his knees and stared up inside the dark chimney to make sure that there weren't any strange boys lurking there. Again, he didn't see anything out of the ordinary. He came to the conclusion that Sora's sickness was progressing to the point of giving him delusions. Since Leon didn't want the boy to feel worse, he decided to pretend that he believed in his visions. "What does the boy look like?" he asked.

"Me," Sora said softly. "But he's blonde. Pale. He's always here." A tear slipped from Sora's eyes and painted a path down his face.

The hairs at the back of Leon's neck stood on end. He couldn't imagine what this was like for Sora; it was obvious that seeing these visions were frightening him. Leon walked over and took a seat next to the boy, hoping to comfort him with his presence. "Maybe he's here to protect you."

Sora closed his eyes with a shiver. He whispered, "He kisses my mouth."

* * *

From then on, Sora was not allowed to be alone. Although he didn't mention the blonde-headed boy ever again, Leon knew that the delusions hadn't left. Every time he saw Sora staring at some dark corner, or spotted him tossing his head to the side with a grimace, he knew what the Keyblade Master was seeing.

Leon kept what Sora told him a secret. He told the others that Sora's delirium was getting worse, but left out the uncomfortable details of what he saw. Sora's friends redoubled their efforts to search for a cure, but like before, nothing they found ever worked. Eventually, Leon began threatening Merlin for the information that they needed. This prompted the old wizard to decide that now was a good time to take a vacation in the Bermudas. That pissed Leon off even more, but there was nothing he could do to stop Merlin from vanishing from Radiant Garden.

Sora was still frightened by his unwelcome visitor. At night, when it became too much, he would creep to where Leon was and fall asleep beside him. In time he stopped staying in the bedroom and simply curled up next to the man whenever he could. It became common for him to sleep with his head in Leon's lap or cuddle beside him on the couch. Leon allowed it to go on because he pitied the boy; however, there were some occasions when he found himself not minding the company. On some nights, he even liked it.

"Dude, that guy is popping such a boner for Roxas," said Demyx as he stroked the strings of his sitar. He was sitting on a rooftop beside Axel, who was glowering in the direction of Leon's house.

"Shut up. Are you in on this or not?" asked Axel. He hated having to resort to help from other Organization members, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The last time he faced Sora's friends alone, he nearly didn't make it out alive. They were difficult adversaries when it came to protecting the Keyblade Master.

"The orders were to kill the traitor, not kidnap him. You're gonna end up branded too if you keep this up, Axel," said Demyx. To accentuate his words, he changed the slow song that he was plucking into a funeral dirge.

"And you're going to end up dead. You really think you can take Sora on?" asked Axel. He grinned when Demyx suddenly played a bad note. "If we can get the old Roxas back, then we won't have to worry about beating his other half."

Demyx heaved a sigh. "You so owe me for this. I'll do the waterworks, but the rest is on you."

"You chicken shit," sneered Axel.

"At least I'm a living chicken shit. Unlike what you're going to be," Demyx said guardedly.

Axel didn't care. What he wanted, he was going to get, one way or the other.

* * *

Fire tended to attract a lot of attention, but water was an insidious entity when used correctly. Leon didn't know something was wrong until he felt wetness lapping at his sides. He opened his eyes at the odd sensation and turned to see what the deal was this time.

What he saw made his mouth fall open. His living room was flooded. The water was almost three feet high, enough to begin creeping over the edge of the couch that he was laying on and drench his pajamas. Leon sat up quickly, his movements jostling Sora who was wedged between himself and the back of the sofa. The boy murmured softly from the disturbance, but otherwise clung to sleep.

Leon bit back a curse when he stepped into the frigid water and scooped Sora into his arms. He couldn't begin to guess how or why his house was in the state it was in, but one thing was for sure: someone was going to pay dearly for it. He cradled the boy close to his body as he trudged through his living room in the direction of the window. Upon reaching it, he shifted Sora to one arm and used his free hand to unlatch the window pane and push it open. He carefully climbed outside with his burden and took a few backward steps to see what in the world was causing the flood.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no rain, no broken pipes, no sign that anything was amiss. Even as the water level continued to rise, it didn't pour out of the window that he just opened. It was as if there was an invisible fish bowl keeping the liquid from gushing out into the streets.

"What –" he began, dumbfounded.

"Looks like someone could use the plumber."

Leon turned towards the source of the voice and found himself facing the redheaded man that they'd been trying to track for the past week. Today he wasn't dressed in the fleece jacket that people had identified him in, instead he was cloaked in the black uniform of the Organization. Leon narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I should have known that you were one of them," he growled.

Axel merely grinned. "I would have told you that before, but you interrupted me before I could. But that's all water under the bridge." After dropping that last, wry comment, he abruptly became serious. "Now hand Sora over. You don't have your friends to back you up this time."

Where the hell was Donald and Goofy? Leon searched the premises and finally spotted them near the front door of the house. Stars were dancing around their heads, indicating that they had been knocked out. Axel probably took them out while they were sleeping on the job again.

With a scowl, Leon gently placed Sora on the ground. The boy didn't take well to the feel of concrete against his back, so he finally began to stir from his slumber. Sora murmured in a gruff voice, "What's happening?"

"There's a problem I have to deal with. Stay there," said Leon. He straightened up and turned to face Axel. Belatedly, he realized that his gunblade was still in his flooded house, which meant that this confrontation was not going to end well if help didn't show up soon.

Sora blinked his eyes open and stubbornly tried to sit up. His body protested every movement with waves of nausea until he surrendered and slumped back on his side. "Wait," he said to Leon.

The man looked over his shoulder, then turned his gaze to his hand when a fierce light flowered in his palm. The Kingdom Key manifested in his grasp, its weight sure and steady. In the next instant, the keyblade went into momentary flux and shapeshifted into the form of the Sleeping Lion. Now understanding, Leon gave Sora a grim smile.

Sora mirrored the expression and then lowered himself completely to the ground. For once, he was going to give up his stubbornness and let Leon do all of the work for him.

Chakrams appeared in Axel's hands upon seeing Sora's weapon transfer to Leon. "Your heart is so fickle, Roxas," he said bitterly before turning the ground beneath his feet into a molten inferno. A wall of fire spread out towards the barefoot Leon, threatening to burn him alive before he even had a chance to swing the keyblade.

"Freeze," whispered Sora. The keyblade reacted by shimmering briefly and then counteracting the fire with magic ice. The two opposing elements met a few feet from Leon and canceled each other out with a hiss of steam.

Relieved that he would be able to counter Axel's fire with Sora's magic, Leon egged Axel on with a taunt. "Got any other tricks?"

"Plenty," answered the Nobody, just before launching himself at the man.

They clashed in a flurry of weapon strikes and magic. Sora continued to utter enchantments as needed despite how tiring the use of magic was. He was starting to black out again, but he did his best to stay awake for as long as possible for Leon's sake.

As Axel suspected, he was an even match for Leon without Donald and Goofy to back him up. No one would come to the man's rescue; there was a barrier around their battle area and they were out of range of the protective charms that had been placed on Leon's house. Now that his target was out in the open, all that stood between reclaiming Roxas was the man currently attacking him.

However, there was one drawback that Axel had not counted on. As Sora began to fall into unconsciousness, a dark portal appeared behind him. Demyx stepped out from its depths, fretting like a man that was riddled with guilt. "This is the messiest mission that Saix has ever sent me on," he said, summoning his sitar. With a somber expression, he planted one foot on Sora's limp body to hold it in place while he got ready to bash the kid's head in. "Sorry Axel, but orders are orders."

Axel shoved Leon aside moments before witnessing what Demyx was up to in the background. "NO!" He shouted shrilly before vanishing into a teleport that left Leon swinging the keyblade through empty space. He reappeared on the other side of Sora's body in time to catch the heavy side of Demyx's sitar before he hurt the boy. "I will end you!" he yelled at the other Nobody.

Just then, something white cleaved through the sitar and ripped it in half. Startled, both Nobodies stumbled backwards holding the mangled ends of the broken weapon. Demyx looked like a fish caught out of water as he held onto the broken bridges of his sitar. "My baby!" he exclaimed forlornly.

Axel was staring hard, but it wasn't at Demyx or the broken instrument; it was at the ghostly white hand that was sticking out of Sora's chest. Its palm was firmly grasped around Oblivion, which had torn through the sitar as if it was tissue paper. The rest of the figure began to rise from the Sora's body, revealing windswept hair and a blank expression. Roxas emerged wearing the same things that Axel had last seen him in: a pair of khakis and a white coat that bore a checkered design. He was surrounded by an unearthly white glow that faded once he was fully separated from his other half.

"Roxas," breathed Axel.

"Roxy!" squealed Demyx. He gave the blonde-headed kid a petulant look. "Why did you break my baby? This is the fifth one you messed up!" Demyx literally squeaked when Roxas swung his keyblade violently at him. The Nobody backed away a few feet out of range with a bewildered expression. "Roxas, I thought we were pals!"

"You just tried to kill me," gritted Roxas through clenched teeth.

Demyx rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish expression. "Kill you? Hah hah, I wasn't trying to kill you! I was trying to kill Sora," he said nervously.

"**I am Sora**," asserted Roxas angrily.

The keyblade was spun like a baton until it became a vortex of white, and Roxas threw it at Demyx. The Nobody threw himself to the ground just moments before the fast moving Strike Raid shaved off more than a centimeter of his spiked hair. He shook with pretend fear. "Oh, would you look at that, hah hah. It's dinnertime at the Castle of Naught. Catch ya later!" Demyx sank into a portal of darkness, leaving Axel to deal with the handful he'd managed to conjure.

Meanwhile, Leon stared dumbly at what was going on. At first, he tried to sneak up on the Nobodies while they were fighting over Sora, but he stopped in his tracks when he witnessed the apparition of the blonde-headed kid rising out of Sora's chest. His grip on the keyblade went lax as he muttered, "He's real," in awed reference to the delusions that Sora had complained about.

Catching the expression on Leon's face, Roxas smirked. Axel, on the other hand, was far from impressed by the blonde's entrance. His green eyes seared into the person that he had been searching for since their last fight in Twilight Town. "What's this 'I am Sora' crap? Quit joking around, Roxas," said Axel heatedly.

"It's no joke," said Roxas. He leveled a serious look on his former comrade. "I am one with my heart."

"Bullshit!" Axel shouted. "You didn't want this! You wanted to know who you were, but you never wanted to change."

"Of course I didn't want it," Roxas said sharply. "I didn't have a heart to want with. I felt nothing. Just like you feel nothing now, Axel. You're the one who's full of it, pretending to care when you're really empty inside."

Axel clenched his teeth. Distantly, in the way all Nobodies know, he knew that he should have been hurt by Roxas's words. So his lips turned down and his eyebrows cinched, conveying what he ultimately could not feel. "If I don't care, then why am I here? Why do I keep chasing after you? Why the hell am I risking my very existence just for the chance to see you again!"

Roxas's face mirrored the pain that he could feel in his heart as he said, "They're only memories now, Axel. We can never go back." Those beautiful memories on the clock tower, where they both found themselves changing and feeling things for the first time, were now a part of the past. Roxas was sure that was the reason why Axel continued to hunt him; to try to bring back what could never be.

Silence fell after those sad words. Axel's face was twisted, and this time he wasn't pretending. Something was crawling up from his chest, a gut wrenching, pure feeling that was exploding from the inside, out. He could only experience such emotion when he was around Roxas. Without him, there was nothing but emptiness. Even his memories of their friendship lost their luster. Axel refused to return to the husk that he was before he met Roxas, even if it meant stealing back Sora's nobody.

"Who are you to decide what can and can't be!" shouted Axel at the top of his lungs. In the next instant, he took a swipe at Roxas with his weapons.

The chakram was blocked by the Oblivion with a resounding clang. Despite the force that Axel was applying to his weapon, Roxas was able to meet it almost effortlessly. His voice held no discomfort as he said, "Don't do this. When I reunited with my heart, I could feel for the first time. Really feel. All those times that we had together, they mean so much more to me now. Don't take that away!"

"So you win everything and leave me with nothing," said Axel heatedly. "How fair of you, Roxas!"

Roxas shoved Axel away and forced him to retreat across the battlegrounds to put some space between them and Sora. This was the opportunity that Leon had been waiting for. He quickly snatched the unconscious Sora from the ground and attempted to escape. Unfortunately, Leon didn't get very far before he ran into a barrier. Translucent, hexagonal patterns rippled at the point where the man could not pass, leaving him to curse at the string of bad luck that just wouldn't end. He then turned to face the two people who were fighting. The fate of Sora and himself depended on whoever won this battle.

"Déjà vu, eh Roxas!" Axel yelled almost gleefully as he sent burning chakrams hurtling toward Roxas. Even in the middle of a fight, he reveled in the feelings that were roiling inside of him. It didn't matter if they were good or bad; Axel only cared that they were there.

Roxas pointed his keyblade at the flying chakrams and casted Magnet to stop them in their tracks. Axel stared in disbelief. Apparently, merging with Sora gave Roxas more benefits than merely gaining a heart. Roxas took advantage of Axel's moment of surprise to point his keyblade at him and shoot a ray of incandescent light at the Nobody. Axel was hit square in the chest, and he fell to his back with a sharp cry of pain.

In that moment, Axel knew that he had lost. He laughed bitterly as he thought of how pathetic he had become. As Roxas approached cautiously with his keyblade held ready, Axel grinned towards the sky. "You know, I really do care," he said conversationally.

"You're lying," said Roxas. He looked sad as he said, "Without a heart, you don't know how to care."

Axel laughed bitterly. "Is that what your heart is telling you?"

Roxas seemed to stall upon hearing Axel's words. After several long moments, he allowed the keyblade to vanish in a swirl of white. Whatever it was that his heart was telling him, it seemed to entail ending their battle. "Don't come after me again," he said. With those words, Roxas turned and began walking back to Leon and Sora.

Before he went too far, however, Axel pushed himself up from the ground and called, "Roxas!" When the boy paused in his tracks, the nobody asked, "Is having a heart really that great?"

"No," answered Roxas. He looked over his shoulder, allowing his old comrade to see the smile of pure happiness on his face. "Having Sora as my heart is great."

"Poor Sora," said Axel dryly. Roxas's happiness was something that he didn't have the heart to understand, but somewhere, in the way that all Nobodies know, he knew that he should be happy for his old friend. So his lips pulled up into a bittersweet smile, and then he vanished into a swirl of darkness.

The barrier surrounding the area finally dispersed, but there was no longer a need for Leon to make a break for it. Instead, he stared at Roxas, who was now approaching them at a slow pace. "Who are you?" he asked.

Roxas came to a stop before Leon and answered simply, "I'm Sora."

"That's not possible," said Leon with disbelief.

"It's your choice if you don't want to believe," murmured Roxas. He peered at Sora fondly, obviously caring more about his other half than Leon right now. Roxas placed his hand on Sora's shoulder and murmured, "We don't feel as sick when we're sleeping."

Leon watched Roxas warily, noting the look in his eyes and the intimate way he touched the sleeping boy. He began to piece together the things that Sora said about the blonde ghost and understood why it made the boy so afraid. Sora could barely stand being hugged, much less resist the advances of.. whatever Roxas was. "You've been causing Sora a lot of trouble," Leon said.

"I didn't mean to. I've been trying to tell him something." Roxas tilted his head up to peer at Leon and asked, "Jealous?"

"Jealousy is an emotion for weak hearts," answered Leon stiffly.

"Sorry, I said that without thinking. Sometimes my heart wishes for things that I don't understand," said Roxas. He lowered his eyes as if he were suddenly stricken by bashfulness. "I will be returning to Sora now." His body began to glow white, just as it had when he first separated from Sora. As he vanished, he said, "Do me a favor and don't tell him about me. Can't have Sora freaking out while we're going after the Organization. If you keep this a secret, I might let you kiss him."

Leon gave the fading Roxas a bewildered stare. Why in the world did he say a thing like that? Another thought suddenly occurred to him, one that had him calling sharply, "Wait! Do you know anything about curing him?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell him." Roxas's voice sounded faint, as if he were speaking from the other end of a long tunnel. "Looks like it doesn't count if I wish myself well."

With that, Roxas faded into streaks of light and Sora resonated with a brief glow of his own. Leon was startled by the shine that suddenly erupted from the body in his hands. When the light faded, he spent several moments staring at Sora. The boy was still sleeping peacefully; it appeared that nothing had changed after Roxas merged with him again.

Leon wondered if it was in his place to tell Sora what happened while he was unconscious. Roxas was right – there would be a lot of trouble if the Keyblade Master suddenly had an identity crisis while they had more important things to do. Afterwards then, he thought to himself. When the war was over, then Leon would sit down with the boy and have a long talk.

"Leon!" called a familiar, raspy voice.

"'Ey Leon!" And there was its dopey counterpart.

Leon gave Donald and Goofy a flat look. Now they decide to wake up and help him. He opened his mouth to say something to that effect, but the noise of shattering glass and gushing water stalled him. He turned in time to see water burst from his house like air from a popped balloon, breaking windows and unhinging doors in its path. Whatever magic that was holding back the liquid had finally released. Leon watched the destruction this caused with utter dismay.

"Dah, Leon, your house is flooded!" Goofy exclaimed.

"No shit," Leon answered through clenched teeth.

* * *

"I swear to god, if my house gets burned t' the ground, or flooded or whatever the flying fuck, I will knock some heads together, ya'll hear me?" ranted Cid.

Unfortunately, since both Leon's and Aerith's homes had been destroyed, Cid's house was the next on the list for storing Sora and the now-homeless Leon. Cid convinced himself that Sora's curse also extended to destroying houses, so he was worried that calamity would befall his home just as it had to the others.

Leon simply rolled his eyes at Cid's cursing and made Sora as comfortable as possible in the extra guestroom. The boy was as feverish and sick as ever, but at least he was conscious for once.

Sora looked up at Leon and said apolgetically, "I'm sorry for your house."

"It needed to be mopped anyway," answered Leon as he finished tucking Sora in. "By the way, have you seen that kid with the blonde hair lately?"

Sora shook his head. "I haven't seen him in a while. Maybe I'm getting better?"

"Maybe," echoed Leon. In his opinion, Roxas probably got the hint and decided to leave his other half alone. Now that Sora had nothing to be afraid of anymore, Leon did not need to keep him company at night. He felt a little wistful as he told the boy, "Try to rest."

"You're not going to stay with me?" asked Sora.

Leon was taken aback by the question, and he searched in Sora's eyes for the reason behind it. "Do you need me to?" he asked.

"I was just wondering," murmured Sora. His cheeks were red, but then again, he was always flushed thanks to his cursed sickness. He closed his eyes against Leon's searching look. "Good night, Leon."

"Good night," answered Leon. He left the guestroom and tried to get some rest, but it turned out to be a fruitless effort. Too many things had happened that night and now his thoughts were racing as he processed everything in his head. He especially wondered about Roxas and why he said the things he did to Axel and himself.

In the end, he got up from the sofa and checked the house to make sure that they were completely safe. He was glad to see that for once, Donald and Goofy were awake and taking their posts in front of the house seriously. Cid was in his bedroom, snoring away without a care in the world. An atomic bomb could drop and he would probably sleep through the explosion. Leon snorted at the lazy image that Cid made before walking to the guestroom to check on Sora.

He found the boy deeply asleep. Although Sora was breathing shallowly, Leon knew that he was peaceful because Roxas had said that the sickness didn't touch them in their dreams. The man took a perch on the edge of the mattress and gazed down at the Keyblade Master.

_ Worrying about you is going to be the death of me_, he thought to himself. Leon was now certain that he wasn't cut out for the caregiver role – not if it gave him this much stress. He lowered one of his palms to brush Sora's bangs from his forehead and check his temperature. The poor boy was still burning up. Leon's chest gave a small squeeze in sympathy.

_ Now I know I'm in trouble_, he thought, because his heart was telling him that he was fond of Sora. He remembered what Roxas said to him, and he couldn't help but quirk a corner of his lips in amusement. Did Sora want him to be jealous? That was so typical of a young man. There were so many more emotions that expressed affection better than jealousy.

_ You have a lot to learn_, thought Leon. _But you'll have to get better first_. He found himself leaning down, his brown hair spilling forwards as he pushed Sora's bangs up. His lips brushed against Sora's brow in a kiss.

"Get better," he whispered.

Then Leon remembered what Roxas promised him, and without a thought, he brushed their noses together as he went lower and pressed another gentle, caring kiss to Sora's mouth.

_ Get better_.

* * *

The next day, everyone was surprised when Sora strode out of the guestroom fever-free and feeling like a million bucks. He danced a jig, ate the biggest breakfast in the history of breakfasts, and strolled outside to breathe in the sweet air. Donald and Goofy were overjoyed to see their friend back at 100%, but sadly, it also meant that they needed to return to their quest. The time to leave Radiant Garden was finally upon them.

Everyone gathered in front of the Restoration Committee's headquarters to say their goodbyes. Even Merlin returned from Bermuda to wish Sora well. They were all glad to see the boy raring to go, but there was one thing that they simply needed to know before he left: How in the world did he finally shake off his curse?

Every time someone asked Sora that question, he would grin bashfully and say, "I don't know, I guess it was everyone that helped me," and they seemed to accept that explanation.

Before Sora left to return to his gummi ship, he clasped Leon's hands in his for a manly handshake. "Sorry for taking up space and ruining your house," he said with an embarrassed smile.

Leon felt something crinkle between their hands. He covertly took the paper that Sora passed to him and said, "Forget it. Just stay healthy from now on."

"I will," Sora said cheerfully.

"You better, I don't think we got enough houses in Radiant Garden to outlive yer bad luck," snorted Cid.

Sora laughed. It was a beautiful sound. Leon found himself smiling.

"I guess this is it then," said Sora. He looked at all of his friends, and then lifted one of his hands in a wave. "I'll see you guys later!"

"Don't stay away too long!" Yelled Yuffie.

Everyone called their goodbyes as Sora walked off with Donald and Goofy, who were both waving madly. They disappeared into the transporter beam of the gummi ship, and then everyone looked to the sky to watch the the ship's after-burn streak through the clouds.

While the others were looking skywards, Leon carefully unfolded the piece of paper that Sora had passed to him during their handshake. The following message was scrawled on it:

_ Thank you for taking care of me when I was down. _

_ I would have never been cured without you. _

_ ~ Sora. _

Leon glanced up and found Merlin looking in his direction with a knowing smile.

_ So that was why_, he realized.

Now Leon understood why Roxas kissed Sora on the mouth.

**The End. **


End file.
